Thai Regime Collapses - Preparing for the Fallout

Image: Thailand's Constitutional Court has ruled against Shinawatra.

May 7, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Thailand's prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra was dismissed from her position along with several ministers from her cabinet by a Constitutional Court ruling regarding her transferring of key officials to pave way for her brother-in-law's promotion to National Police Chief. Thai PBS reported in their article, "Constitutional Court rules Yingluck and her cabinet guilty," that:

The Constitutional Court today unanimously ruled that caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was guilty in interfering in the reshuffling of senior government officials, of covering up of facts in the unusual and speedy transfer, falsifying [the] date in the transfer order to cover up facts, and aiding [a] relative to get [a] promotion to top police post which is a blatant interference of senior government reshuffle. 

The court said the transfer of former national security chief Thawil Pliensri and the transfer of former national police chief Pol Gen Photo Phosri was merely to make the national police chief post vacant and is a joint effort of the caretaker prime minister to facilitate the appointment of her relative [brother-in-law] Pol Gen Pliewphan Damapong to the post which is a violation of the Constitution.

The act of overt nepotism is in fact just a smaller part of a much larger pattern of criminality carried out by the current regime, ruled only symbolically by Yingluck Shinawatra who is admittedly a proxy placeholder for her brother, billionaire, convicted criminal, fugitive, accused mass murderer, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Wall Street's Billionaire Proxy 

Thaksin Shinawatra and his political machine have dominated Thailand's political landscape for over a decade. Formally a Carlyle Group adviser and close family friends with the Bush family, Shinawatra would become prime minister in 2001. He immediately began making sweeping concessions regarding security and economics with his Western backers including the use of Thai troops to assist in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the use of Thai territory for the US CIA's horrific rendition program, and the privatization and sell-off of Thailand's oil and natural gas to Western petroleum-conglomerates like Chevron and Hess.

His term in office, stretching from 2001-2006, also included mass murder in 2003 and 2004 that would leave nearly 3,000 dead, and systematic violence aimed at his political opponents including up to 18 human rights activists who were either assassinated or disappeared.

By 2006, his attempts to remove Thailand's sociopolitical checks-and-balances, his systematic abuse of power, attempts to subvert Thai sovereignty on behalf of foreign interests, and increasing contention between him and Thailand's various national institutions, including the courts and military, led to a bloodless coup that finally ousted him from power. Following the coup, a year-long reformation of Thailand's political institutions would lay the groundwork to being uprooting Shinawatra's extensively dug-in political machine.

Following reforms, elections were held and as expected, Shinawatra's political machine found itself back in power. Two  successive regimes led by Samak Sundaravej - Shinawatra's admitted proxy candidate - and Somchai Wongsawat - Shinawatra's brother-in-law - would likewise be ousted through a series of street demonstrations and court decisions. By 2008 Democrat Party candidate Abhisit Vejjajiva would become Thailand's prime minister and would face violent street protests organized by Shinawatra in both 2009 and 2010.

Why Occupy Bangkok is Working and Occupy Wall Street Didn't

Power flows from institutions and those without them have no power.

February 14, 2014 (New Eastern Outlook - Tony Cartalucci) - Occupy Wall Street, ideologically speaking, could not have been any more universally appealing. It was the 99% against the 1% (or more accurately - the 99.9% vs. the 0.1%), with the realization that big money had taken over politics and society to the detriment of all, regardless of political affiliation. With such a broadly appealing message, how come the movement fizzled?

Image: Occupy Bangkok has exposed and hobbled the Wall Street-backed regime of Thaksin Shinawatra. It has succeeded where Occupy Wall Street hasn't because it is backed by numerous, influential institutions with wide and varied operational capacities. Tactically, economically, and politically, cornering, undermining or otherwise ending the protests have proved impossible for the regime. 

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Conversely, on the other side of the planet, "Occupy Bangkok" seeks to overthrow a regime propped up by Wall Street - that of billionaire despot Thaksin Shinawatra who for over a decade has served Western interests at great cost to the Southeast Asian nation of Thailand. Unlike Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Bangkok has been greatly successful. It has united unions, students, farmers, workers, business owners both big and small, against the corrosive influence of Thaksin Shinawatra and his Western backers.

Recent elections overseen by the regime unraveled in humiliation with less than half of the nation even choosing to vote. Of those that did, many defaced their ballots or checked "no vote" in protest. The protests which have been ongoing for months, have effectively hobbled the regime. Its collapse is now inevitable.

They have done so because they have institutions standing behind them, from media, to military, to courts, and large, influential political parties, as well as genuine, indigenous NGOs - all combining and coordinating against the regime and its foreign backers to equal or best every move they make.

The regime has been unable to move police against them in fear of provoking the military. They have been unable to financially cripple the protesters because of the large and diverse interests backing them through creative and ever shifting means. They have been unable to drown out the voice of the protesters because the protesters possess themselves large media platforms within Thailand, and alternative voices beyond, that are able to tell their side of the story.

None of this was present at Occupy Wall Street. The Western media was easily able to first turn it into a "left/right" wedge issue, then turn the "right" against the "left," before labeling the protesters as "fringe left," just before police swept protesters from the streets in swift, coordinated, and utterly unopposed operations across the country. The little political and institutional backing the movement did receive was merely superficial opportunism and theater to perpetuate America's false "left/right" political paradigm - some backing from establishment institutions like George Soros' Open Society, was designed in fact to undermine, not support the movement. .

Institutions Make the World Go Round 

Power stems from organized institutions. Empires were not built by mere armies and navies - they also included financial, economic, and institutional power projected beyond their borders into their colonies and subjects of conquest.

Today, individuals, or groups of individuals with no operational capacity are merely mobs in the streets - like barbarian raiders of ancient times - with no real plan, manifesto, or potential. They may be able to temporarily seize territory from their opponents but have absolutely no means to fortify it, let alone project power beyond it.